SUMMARY
This guide aims to inform our stakeholders and contributors of our Think editorial standards and our ethical guidelines for creating content.
This document is also a tool for explaining what qualifies as Think content, the content mix we strive for and the scope of what will be considered for inclusion in Think.
What is Think at London Business School?
At Think, we believe the editorial insights we present via our thought leadership help our research and expertise shine. We aim to equip our audiences with ideas and inspiration that will help them to become smarter, more creative and better skilled in their work and business.
We do this by producing well-rounded, informative content in collaboration with our esteemed faculty, industry experts, alumni and students. Think is a platform for these experts and students to share their insights and counsel.
What is thought leadership and why does it matter?
Thought leadership is insight that cuts through the clutter and leaves an impact on its audiences. Four of the key traits of thought leadership include:
- A basis in evidence and research at its core
- Requires smart, creative activation
- Adds to the conversation
- Makes our audiences think and consider an idea
Think is made up of a variety of carefully chosen content that will grab our audiences’ attention, make them consider something they didn’t already know, educate and inform.
The sources of our thought leadership:
- Faculty research – our published London Business School research, as well as from conversations with faculty and faculty insights discussed at Student Activity Clubs and other School events
- Insights derived from our faculty’s body of research
- Commentary from our experts relating to news and world events and trends
- Research Institute activity within London Business School
Our thought leadership covers a breadth of topics, including, but not limited to the LBS subject areas:
- Accounting
- Economics
- Finance
- Marketing
- Organisational behaviour
- Strategy and entrepreneurship
- Management science and operations
And we divide this mix into three content themes
- Powering people
How to optimise performance through personal development, team leadership, cultural transformation, team diversity and managing wellbeing.
- Navigating markets
Understanding new opportunities, technologies, trends and market dynamics; how leaders harness disruption and remain competitive.
- Business for good
The research insights, tools and strategies leaders need to solve the world’s greatest challenges; operating sustainably why benefiting society and the planet.
What are our content principles, and what should our content do?
Educate
Inform and empower our audiences by providing practical insights, knowledge and skills that educate them on global challenges and prepare them for success.
Excite
Inject enjoyment into our audiences’ experiences with our content that captures their attention, evokes emotion and ensure we continue to excite them.
Engage
Encourage our audiences to create an action, whether that’s a click, comment, share or lead.
Our content is multi-channel
You’ll read our content in long- and short-form articles on our website, in social media and in our fortnightly newsletter.
You’ll hear us in our informative, discussion-provoking podcasts and watch us in our inspiring videos.
You can meet us at our think ahead events or hear us discussing important topics at other London Business School-led events where our faculty bring to life the important topics of our times.
Content that we do not consider to be thought leadership:
- Book reviews (apart from books written by our faculty)
- Announcements pertaining to personal achievements, unless specifically linked to a Think campaign or other Think-related content
- Research written by non-LBS faculty
- An article written by a student or alumni which does not meet our thought leadership editorial priorities
- Marketing material for courses at LBS other than that specifically discussed and agreed with the editor
- Promotional content relating to individual business or personal successes
Who are our audiences?
Our primary audience is made up of our prospective and current students and participants and our global alumni community.
Our secondary audience is staff (current and future), industry partners, faculty and global business audiences.
Commercial content
All our content is independent and is never influenced by external advertisers.
No editorial commitments should be made to feature content in Think without the express agreement of our Senior Editor.
Programme advertising
We aim to deliver relevant and timely thought leadership content to our audiences. We will feature links to relevant programmes when we see it as appropriate to enhancing our thought leadership content.
The content format, style and length, must be discussed first with our Senior Editor before we agree to publish anything.
Diversity
We strive for diversity of voices and experiences both in what we cover, who we interview and who we commission to work with us. We will prioritise content that depicts a broad array of examples and points of view, and we strive to highlight global perspectives. We will ensure that our content avoids stereotypes and bias.
Attribution, sources and ownership
The content we produce comes from expert writers, our faculty and industry experts, and is attributed as such in our bylines and/or standfirsts. All work is fully credited, first to the faculty and secondly to the writer.
If any content comes from an outside source, we will also attribute that information to whomever or wherever it came from.
All content published or recorded for Think and think ahead is the intellectual property of London Business School.
Generative AI policy
All the content we produce is written, captured, recorded and edited by humans.
We remain committed to working with experts to ensure that our offering is current and best reflects our mission and purpose. We promise that our writing is original, accurate and engaging.
We use generative AI – OpenAI’s ChatGPT – to assist in carrying out some editorial tasks, such as summarising, translating or analysing large research texts, whilst remaining cognizant of its shortcomings.
We do not use AI for curation, and we do not publish any content generated or edited by AI. Our human editors do all the work.
Plagiarism
We have a zero-tolerance policy on plagiarism and will never publish plagiarised content.
As necessary, we will attribute sourced content.
Factual accuracy
Our editors make sure that all information is factual, current, and correct. All our published content, by whichever channel, is dated to indicate when it was published and when it was last checked for accuracy.
Our content aims to be persuasive, informative and enjoyable to read, listen to or watch. The bulk of our content is commissioned by us from evidence-based insights from LBS faculty. We do on occasion receive submissions from individuals who are either involved in LBS currently or have been in the past. However, our content is very specific to our thought leadership aims, and therefore leans heavily on research and evidence.
If you’d like to submit something for inclusion in Think, please follow our editorial submission policy. Please note that your submission may not be accepted.
Below are the qualities we look for when evaluating what to publish. Does your recommendation for inclusion answer ‘yes’ to each?
- Expertise: Is the content provider/voice/writer an expert in the subject matter?
- Relevance: Does the content come from the LBS community?
- Evidence: Is there research to back up these thoughts?
- Originality: Are we creating something that has a fresh angle or new perspective?
- Usefulness: Will the content be insightful and helpful to our audiences?
- Engagement: Will this content inspire our audiences and grab their attention?
Processes and timelines
Our Think Article Processes Guide can be found here.
Sometimes, we receive more submissions than we can publish, and we often have to say no to good proposals due to limitations of space, time, or workload.
Due to the volume of requests, it can take up to two weeks for us to review an unsolicited idea or proposal.
If your submission is successful, we will let you know. We will then liaise with relevant editors to produce the content adhering to our workflow timelines.
We may add your submission to a content bank for later use and may or may not notify you of this.
We will notify you if your submission has been unsuccessful.
It usually takes three to four weeks from commissioning a content piece to publishing it, sometimes this can be longer depending on the availability of our writers, editors and web team.
GUIDELINES FOR WRITERS AND EDITORS
How to submit a commissioned written article
Please submit your finished article using our downloadable Think Article Template, completing all relevant fields.
- Headline (max 60 characters)
- Sell (max 140 characters)
- Author byline: Your name as you’d like to be attributed
- Body copy (word count as agreed at point of commission) with crossheads.
- “In 30 seconds” copy: 3 bullet points summarising the article
- 2 or 3 pull quotes you think are worth highlighting (15 – 20 words each)
- 4-6 taxonomy tags from this list that you feel appropriate.
- Include write-up summaries to be used for social media, mainly for LinkedIn posts on the London Business School feed. We sometimes use other channels as well, such as Instagram, Facebook and X.
When submitting your finished article, please send the word document via email to the Think editorial team. Do not share a live document with us.
Do’s and don'ts
- Do write in British English, for example: authorised not authorized.
- Do provide links to any necessary and relevant external websites or research files.
- Do always fact check any websites, names and brands in your copy.
- Do section your body copy with short crossheads/subheads (2-8 words max)
- Do refer to faculty members by their full name and title on first mention and by first name only for all subsequent mentions.
- Do promote content in your own social media channels, if possible.
- Don't use full stops in your headline and sell.
- Don’t use long stretches of copy for pull quotes – shorter ones hold our audiences’ interest more easily. 20 words is ample.
- Don’t forget to follow the brand guidelines for how to talk about the School.
Voice
Our guidelines for our voice and tone align with the wider London Business School brand guidelines to represent our brand across all Think content, including articles, videos, podcasts and beyond.
We speak like the experienced, trusted and credible business school that we are. We want to cut through the noise to educate people without patronising or confusing them.
Our voice creates a sense of belonging, inspiration and the recognition of being accepted as a peer by some of the world’s brightest minds.
Tone
Our tone of voice may shift depending on the topic, the channel we’re publishing on and the format of content we’re producing.
We have four strong personality traits that guide the way we speak. Our writing is always curious, open, rigorous and inspiring.
We understand that communications vary. There are times when our language may need to be more formal, more academic or we may need to use terminology familiar to a particular audience, such as financial professionals. Different types of writing will require a different balance of our personality traits based on the task at hand.
For more information on tone and voice, see pages 46 – 53 of our London Business School brand guidelines.
Talking about the School
We follow the School’s style guide as established on pages 54 – 59 of the brand guidelines when talking about the School, our courses, faculty, students and staff.
House style guide
Pages 60 – 68 of the brand guidelines detail our house style in full – covering punctuation, spelling and abbreviations, dates, titles and salutations, and more.
All our contributors should familiarise themselves with these guidelines when writing and/or editing content for Think.
